Tuesday, 29 March 2011

Okay, so you think you know what to expect from a Bear Funk nu-disco comp – there's certainly been enough of them. But wait!

Cos y'see it doesn't all have to be glacial Italo synths, slightly iffy 80s hi-camp vocals and Levan/Cowley-homaging weird bass wobbles, you know. Nu-disco can have its more thoughtful, mellow, musical side too… and that's what's showcased here. Sure, the usual suspects are all present and correct - Essa, Rudman, Tobor, Mudd and of course Kotey – but this is definitely a more chilled-out, less brash side of the nu-disco coin, with wilful experimentalism for experimentalism's sake forgone in favour of an overall vibe that's a bit less Hoxton hipster hangout and a bit more lush cocktail bar.

In other words, it's very good, and you should buy it immediately. End of.

Out: Last week, but again I was in the throes of Mega Armageddon Tooth Death at the time

About: If you need me to tell you about Bear Funk, you're probably reading the wrong blog. But cos I'm nice, here's their website, so you can go educate yourself a bit and come back when you're ready. We'll be waiting.

Monday, 28 March 2011

Spring Tube is a relatively new label who've been sending me some good stuff of late... if you've get to catch the Spring Tube vibe, then this second label showcase is a fine place to start.

The general idea for the label seems to be to put out what they regard good music regardless of genre. Hence, there's quite a range of styles on here, and so every single track might not be to every single listener's taste (one or two are a bit too proggy or a bit too "downtempo" for me personally). But hey, variety is the spice of life and all that. For our purposes today, this has enough groovy little nuggets – Antifish's laidback chillout/deep house cut Everything Will Be, Claes Rosen's Into The Bloom, the drifty, uplifting, want-to-hear-it-in-Ibiza-really sunshine prog of Kenneth Thomas's All Is Not Lost, and more – to make it certainly worthy of your attention.

Out: Last week, sorry, but I didn't get to review it at the weekend as planned - an emergency tooth extraction due to excruciating pain kind of got in way of things…

About: Spring Tube is run by Russian duo East Sunrise and Latvian DJ/producer Slang, but as far as I can tell they're based in the US. Find out more at their Facebook page and website/blog thingy

Oh, and the toothache seems to be gone now. Just in case you were wondering. But I'm not counting any chickens just yet...

Friday, 25 March 2011

Aki Bergen - Street King 3 vinyl sampler (Street King, 15 Mar)King Street’s Street King offshoot has come a long way since its birth as a home for shouty electrohouse, and is now turning out a fine line in bumpin’, underground house music. Check this sampler for Bergen’s forthcoming label comp if don’t believe me...

Clapz II Dogz - Clapz II Dogz EP (Glass Table, 14 Mar)Clapz II Dogz team up with Soul Clap on this three-track EP that’s home to some seriously sleazed-out slo-mo house with a cosmic disco twist and, on The Rain, a dash of soul to boot. Forward-thinking stuff.

Desos - It’s House EP (Tokyo Red, 15 Mar)A three-track EP of deep, underground shizzle that shouldn’t take too much explaining! All three are very good but the organs on Surrender make it an absolute killer - go seek!

DJ T - Burning (Get Physical, 14 Mar)The midtempo opening track from the recent Pleasure Principle album gets a single release, with the remixes from Redshape and Art Department. It’s okay but I’m still not sure about the robotic vocal…

Flash Atkins - The In Crowd (Paper, 14 Mar)The title track comes on like classic prog (think Guerrilla Records) slowed down to a nu-disco tempo, while Flash’s Theme is a heavy-lidded slab of blissed-out Balearica with some luvverly jazz-funk geetar.

Icicle - Breathing Again (Shogun Audio, 14 Mar)More future D&B/dubstep. B-side Redemption has a vocal from Robert Owens, but it’s Breathing Again itself that I’m preferrring

Little Fritter - Truth Told (Affin, 14 Mar)More quality deep house… or is deep techno, perhaps? When it’s as good as this, and the Dirty Culture Remix is even better, I don’t think we need worry too much about what we’re going to call it

Thursday, 24 March 2011

Midland gives his growing rep in deep house/deep techno circles another boost here, and getting Radio Slave and Youandewan in to remix certainly won’t hurt, either.

The original is an atmosphere-laden cut reminiscent of a late-night drive round some futuristic, Bladerunner-esque city. It’s all a bit soundscape-y for the first half, but once the chopped-up (and slightly chipmunk’d) female vocal comes in, it develops into a more abstract, future garage-y kind of affair. A track that will grow on you after repeated smoke-fuelled listens, methinks.

Youandewan’s Warehouse Dub does what it says on the tin, really, being a sparser but bigger and more echoey take, with less of the crackles and atmos’ and drums that come on like tribal on Mogadon, while Radio Slave’s rub is more similar to the original but in more of a deep techno kinda vein.

Finally, there’s bonus cut Dead Eyes, which is more your straight-up deep houser with sampled, spoken vox, but just as good.

Like I said, this won’t do Midland’s rep for forward-thinking deep house/deep techno any harm at all.

Out: This week

About: Don’t know much about More Music, TBH, but I THINK this is their Soundcloud page... at least, there's a link to it from Midland's

Kling Klong fave Namito returns with his first single in a while, and thankfully there’s no sign of his usual high standards slipping.

In its Original form, Marathon builds slowly and inexorably in much the same way as a Garnier opus might, from subdued, chugging groove to a full-on workout for big dancefloors in dark rooms that’s perhaps best characterised as ‘euphoric, but in a restrained, no-need-to-get-silly-about-it kinda way’. Well, that’s the best way I can describe it anyway!

Martin Eyerer’s rework doesn’t do much dramatically different, but goes go a little sooner/more directly for the tech/prog jugular, while Peter Dundov’s pass throws in a dark rumbling bass synth line reminiscent of Josh Wink, plus some spangy toplines worthy of Orbital.

You getting the idea here? If you’re gonna make big room techno, then doing so in such a fashion as to pick up Garnier, Wink and Orbital comparisons isn’t a bad way to go about it…

Out: This week

About: Kling Klong is of course part of the Great Stuff family and needs little introduction, having had plenty of love on this blog before now! But here’s their website anyway and, so you can HEAR THIS, their Soundcloud as well.

George Pearson - The Journey EP (Hype Muzik, 8 Mar)George Pearson is apparently only in his early 20s... how he’s already making deep house/deep techno as good as this is beyond me

Inaya Day & Ralf Gum - Lose My Worries Pt 2 (GOGO Music, 7 Mar)Featured this real-deal soulful house nugget on the TIWWD cloudcast a few months back, and now it’s back with no less than SEVEN new mixes from Trancemicsoul and Louis Benedetti. Just lush!

Jevne - Blue Label #1 (Eight Dimension, 8 Mar)Following The System is a deep houser with disco overtones that comes on like early Faze Action, with remixes from Da Funk and Pete Dafeet. The ethno-Balearic funk of Velvet Eyes rounds out a very strong package.

Nadastrom - Theo (Dubsided, 8 Mar)A one-sided release from Dubsided in a kind of jazzed-up tech-house vein… wouldn’t sound out of place on the likes of Leftroom or Freerange, which gives you an idea I guess.

Oliver Deutschmann - Waterfalls (Jack Off, 9 Mar)The original of Waterfalls Are Good is a deep house/deep techno dancefloor cut, the Patrice Scott Sitrum mix is more of a late-night affair and then Do It The Classic Way Honey takes a trip to old-skool Chi-Town, making for a strong EP all round.

Various - Light Of Day/Still Falling (Plush Recordings, 9 Mar)Not had any D&B on here for while it seems, so here’s a nice little fem-vocalled liquid roller for ya… or rather two nice little fem-vocalled liquid rollers, seemingly by about 17 different artists. I’m confused, but they’re both rather nice, as I believe I’ve already made clear.

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Okay, so going back to the 'I AM going to bring this blog up to date if it ruddy well kills me' thing, over the course of this week I'm gonna do some round-up type posts running quickly through some cuts that as yet haven't had the justice they deserve on here. Starting with this lot, which all came out late Feb or early March…

Namespace - Sentinel (Stripped Recordings, 3 Mar)More of a prog thing, really, but could work in deeper sets as well

Nick Daring - Decomposition Of The Past EP (Kiara Records, 5 Mar)Four cuts of slightly leftfield-ish and hard-to-classify deep/prog/tech bizniss from this relative newcomer, but it’s the jazzed-up deep of David Labeij’s remix of Paint On Desh I suggest you seek out

Paul Francini - Paul Francini EP (Mutated Audio, 1 Mar)If you like it on the minimal, glitchy side, check this

Thodoros Triantafillou & CJ Jeff - Not Only U (Rhythmetic, 4 Mar)Not sure about the slightly Underworld-y white man’s blues of the vocal, but there are some nice old-skool house sounds on the Roberto Rodriguez Remix

Various - Schlack Purple 003 (Schlack Records, 4 Mar)A six-track V/A sampler from this French tech-house label. Some of it’s a bit glitchy for me but check Tom Ap & Ferro’s Everybody for a housier vibe.

Vogue & Stein - Here To Move (Wired Music, 4 Mar)Deep house on the original, tech-house on the Gabriel & Castellon Remix, so take your pick!

I did consider not doing any more blogging tonight, out of deference to today's loss... but the disco must go on, I guess.

With releases on four:twenty, Plastic City and several other labels in the past year, plus countless remixes, German producer Wollion is definitely an up-and-comer on the tech house scene right now. This latest offering, for Breakoutaudio, will do little to damage his burgeoning rep.

The original version of You Got comes from the deep house end of the deep/tech spectrum, with vocal snips and a raw kick that make it reminiscent of, say, an early Kerri Chandler cut on Madhouse. Fellow Germans Dualton* supply a dub that’s got more of a dark, rolling, techy vibe, as befits a track record that takes in releases for the likes of ViVA and Systematic, while Greece’s Detlef supplies a more stripped-down, more overtly techy rub.

The original is the one for me here, for sure, but it’s a strong package overall that should suit a range of DJs.

Out: This week

About: Darius Syrossian is the man behind Breakoutaudio, who are based in Leeds. Find out more here.

Genuinely saddened today to hear of the death of the one of the truly great original disco divas.

64 seems quite young, but hopefully Loleatta's family and friends can take some solace in knowing she had - still has - countless fans all over the world. Anyway, what can I say? So not gonna bang on, but RESPECT is most definitely due.

Oh, and in case this is actually news to anyone this late in the day, here's what BBC News had to say about it. I do quibble with the fact they've reduced her illustrious career to 'was sampled by Black Box' but at least she made the front page.

Monday, 21 March 2011

Subtitled 'Classic Deep, Funky & Jazzy House From New York City', this rather excellent comp will be a trip down memory lane if you're one of the older heads like me, or is an essential history lesson if you're a young 'un/newcomer.

For those that don't know, Henry Street Music was a mid-late 90s house label outta Brooklyn. Big on disco cut-ups but taking in a variety of flavas in their time, in much the same way Strictly did but without the horrible 'licensing Vengaboys' bit at the end, they hit biggest with Bucketheads' The Bomb but as well as that chart-busting, Chicago-sampling classic, they put out a hella lot more, er, deep, funky and jazzy house to boot. Come check my vinyl shelves if ya don't believe! The list of artists who released on the label is like a Who's Who of 90s US house: Armand Van Helden, DJ Sneak, DJ Duke, 95 North, Mike Delgado, Davidson Ospina, Scotti Deep, Todd Terry, Mateo & Matos, That Kid Chris, E-Smoove… ah, happy days! Sigh.

BBE put out a Henry Street comp called The Story So Far: 1993-1999, back when the label was still going, so it seems only fitting they're behind this retrospective collection comprised mostly, as far as I can tell without spending ages A-B'ing tracklists, of cuts that haven't featured on any of the previous Henry Street albums. Some of them coming from some of those big-hitters I just mentioned, but many of them more obscure nuggets.

So, like I said: a trip down memory lane for some, an education for others… and pretty unmissable whichever one of those applies to you. This was how we did it, as Montell Jordan once sang, sort of.

Out: Now (but again, only since last week)

About: If you want to find out more about Henry Street, you can start with their Discogs entry. BBE, meanwhile, can be found online here.

More tech house vibes here (mostly) on this latest showcase comp from another current fave label of mine, the Endemic (Digital) stable.

16 tracks on offer, again mostly from new names, though you should know a few of the artists involved (Timo Garcia and City Soul Project, for starters). And what I'm liking most about this comp is just how varied it is: rather than 16 samey cuts you get assorted shades of deep/tech house from soulful, to disco-fied, to minimal/glitchy, to proggy. But all with plenty of dancefloor energy, and with absolute NO eyes on commercial/crossover appeal whatsoever.

Again, let's just call it quality jacking underground house music and leave it there.

Out: Last week, but I'm guessing some of the cuts featured will be getting single releases as well at some point?

About: Again, Endemic have had loads of love on here so here's just a quick website link.

Okay, so what we're mostly going to be doing on This Is Why We Dance this week is playing a game of catch-up... something I intended to do over the weekend, but I accidentally bought a kayak instead (tell me that isn't my best excuse for non-blogging shoddiness yet). But now to business, and let's kick off with some rather splendid house comps that hit the racks last week. First up, this third in 90watts' The Sound Of Amsterdam series.

If you read this blog or iDJ regularly, you'll already know that 90watts is one of my favourite labels right now, so it should come as no surprise that I'm well into this. The 90watts sound is for me exactly where the most exciting house music is at in 2011: either rather techy, post-minimal deep house, or the deepest shades of tech house, depending how you look at it. Or, you could just call it quality jacking underground house music, and leave it at that.

Ten tracks, and ten artists that, apart from label boss Jens De Langer, you've probably never heard of… but then that's always the best way innit? There's not a dud among 'em, but I'd suggest Girl Talk by Ferreck Dawn and Grey Haze by Angelo D'Onorio are particularly worthy of your attention....

Out: Last week, but I was messing about on the river.

About: Already bigged up 90watts enough for one post I think so here's their website and let's leave it at that! You can find 'em on all the usual social networking sites from there anyway.

The tracks in question are The Bright Side itself and My Name Is Beautiful. Both are quite trad-sounding affairs – deep house leaning towards Jersey garage rather than tech-house – but both have plenty of dancefloor energy. The instrumental The Bright Side has some wicked sax work towards the end, but My Name Is Beautiful is my pick, coming on like vintage Junior Vasquez (albeit a little mellower) with its near-tribal drums and chopped-up female vocal.

All told, something of a treat for the older heads, while the current resurgence of interest in traditional house and garage means it could reach to younger floors as well. So let's hear it…

About: According to the hype sheet, "In the past three years Dirty Culture has clocked up releases for Einmaleins, Greelpool and Joaqchim Speith’s Affin label, delivering smooth, contemporary deep house that which continually garner the usual suspects attention."

As for Apt International, you can find 'em on Soundcloud (obviously), and here's their website as well.

Monday, 14 March 2011

The 12th release from Adaptation Music - a label I'll 'fess up to not knowing a lot about - is this excellent three-tracker from D-Reflection.

Day One is a midtempo deep, soulful house groover, sprinkled with some lovely jazzy sax licks and topped off with some sampled spoken word that sounds like it might come from a Noam Chomsky lecture or suchlike. Human Body Food is a more driving, dancefloor kind of affair with some sprightly piano action to bring a smile to the face of old-timers like me, that then moves towards jazz-funk territory with some nifty guitar work later on. And finally Funkified Future is another stomper, coming on like tech-house gone space disco and sporting the most pecular of hip-wigglin' synth riffs that could make a dead man dance.

On one level, there's nothing especially clever or groundbreaking going on here. It's just funk-fuelled deep/soulful house done properly (ie with some balls and energy, as opposed to all that limp, "ooh look at us, we're a proper band and we really like Roy Ayers" bizniss). But whack it on, pump it up and try and sit still. I dare ya.

Out: Now-ish, but I'm not sure exactly when. It doesn't matter though, you NEED this record.

About: Right, I'm flying blind here... but a quick Google throws up D-Reflection's Soundcloud, MySpace and Facebook pages, based on which I can tell you he's Dutch, his real name's Dennis Molema and he's worked with the likes of Soulfuric Records, Sean McCabe, The Sunburst Band and Aaron Ross. Not bad!

Meantime, another Google tells me that Adaptation Music are based in Nottingham, and previous releases have come from Sueno Soul, Vincent Kwok and Distant People, among others.

Truly the internet really IS all about search, eh?

(PS I quite like Roy Ayers, too. Just not piss-poor imitations thereof.)

Sunday, 13 March 2011

A tiny bit late on this one but had to give it some props, cos it's one of the most addictively weird records I've been sent in ages.

Walking In Oslo is one of those 'once heard, never forgotten' tunes thanks to its frankly bizarre vocal, which features some woman's voice sampled from God knows where talking about, well, walking in Oslo, under the clouds, under the clouds… couple that with rolling tech-house beats and a jaunty little riff played on what sounds like it might be a clarinet or oboe, and you've got a killer tune that might cause a few raised eyebrows at first - the vocal being so strange - but that's pretty much impossible to resist first tapping a foot, then getting up and dancing like a loon to.

Just the two mixes on offer, both from JJ himself, and to me the Club Rework beats the EU Mix into a cocked hat, but you don't really need any more, trust. For what would appear to be a debut release from Mr Faro, this is really remarkably good - more soon, please.

Out: Last week but it's WAY too good to not get some props

About: I did something of a double-take but yes, this really is on Purple Music. Which is A Very Good Thing, cos while Purple does a great job of flying the flag for trad-style disco/gospel-infused vocal house, I was starting to think the label had got stuck in a bit of a slightly outdated rut; this tech-house cut, though, is as contemporary-sounding as you could wish for. Excellent work, Swiss peeps! For more on Purple Music, see their website.

And sorry there's not been more blog action this week, BTW. But for one thing I've had a heavy cold, and for another my Mac's been doing strange things, which has taken some sorting out. These things are sent to try us...

Friday, 11 March 2011

Something of a coup for Leigh Morgan's Urban Torque imprint here, as they sign up a veteran master of all things deep to show the youngsters how it's done.

There's three very different mixes to choose from. The original Liquatech Mix of Gliding comes on like the deepest of Detroit techno gone Balearic, or maybe like Hybrid-style prog-breaks set to an 808 kick, or… dunno, it's hard to describe really but it's good, a proper driftaway delight. According to the hype sheet, "Tom and [partner-in-crime] Lars have christened this style 'liquatech' as it fuses the best of the deep end of D&B productions with refined deep/tech house grooves. A connoisseur's blend." Yeah, something like that.

Then there's the Shur-I-Kan Remix, which is more your straight-up deep house/deep garage affair… you could play this alongside Victor Simonelli's early 90s work and it'd sound perfectly at home, which is praise indeed coming from me*. And then finally, there's the D&B Mix, which is a rolling, hi-octane liquid affair that's more of an obvious reflection on what Tom's been listening to lately.

What's truly remarkable is that whichever mix you go for, all three are equally impressive. The force is clearly strong in this old Jedi Knight yet!

Out: This week

About: Tom Middleton you really shouldn't need me to tell you about. But in case you do… I'll let Wikipedia do it. As for Urban Torque – top label, top boys, find 'em online at their website and Soundcloud. And on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as well but I'm not sitting here posting links all morning.

* Way back in the mid-90s, I used to do the club guide for Kiss 102 in Manchester and I seem to recall describing Victor Simonelli as 'God' on air once. Sorry, God. Please don't burn me.

Thursday, 10 March 2011

A strange little number from Mr Burridge, here. Here's Johnny in its Original form is an almost tribal, 'lost in the jungle' kind of affair built around insistent, African-esque rhythms in what sounds to my musically untrained ear to some weird time signature, though it may just be the drum pattern itself that's a bit unusual. Either way it's certainly interesting, if potentially a little confusing for the dancefloor.

On the remix front, Lazaro Casanova's Haunted Vocal Mix makes more of both the tribal whoops and the house piano line, while also toning down the freaky riddim a tad in favour of some fast and furious hand percussion. And then finally the Rainy Night Mix, also from Casanova, is more of a deep house take, albeit with those tribal elements not dispensed with entirely.

All told, like I said, it's an interesting and somewhat unusual release… and let's hope it does will cos he's a good lad is our Lee.

Out: This weekAbout:This is on Matt Tolfrey's Leftroom Records… a label that's never afraid to push the house envelope a little so this is right at home! For more on the label, see their website.

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

It's getting quite embarrassing, how much I seem to rave about everything Smiley Fingers do at the moment! But what can I tell you? This is another winner from the London-based label.

Dee Keepers, as you may or may not know, are Hernan Cerbello and Leo Donato, two Argetinian producers who've both seen some considerable success individually. Teamed up as Dee Keepers, they've had a previous release out on SF, the Funky Talk EP, and now they return with two more deep house stompers. Boogaloo itself, despite the name, is actually a skanking, reggae-tinged number, while The Woman In Red is more of a rumbling, heads-down affair. But both are excellent, making this, as I said, another winner for Smiley Fingers.

Out: This week

About: You can find out more about Dee Keepers at their Soundcloud and MySpace, while Smiley Fingers can be found online here.

After all that bouncy techno bizniss last night, let's slow down the pace with this nu-disco nugget from the mighty Paper Recordings. Drip Dry comes on like some lost rolleskating jam from circa 1983, with a heavy hint of Italo in the analogue synth sounds and some housey pia-pia-pianos to boot.

Just two mixes to choose from - Original and Yam Who? - but then, as either will move your floor nicely, you don't really need any more.

Out: It just says 'March' so that's as much as I can tell you.About: Is anyone else confused about the whole Paper/We Are Woodville situation? I certainly am. But never mind that for now, here's the Paper Recordings Soundcloud and blog.

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

The first thing that strikes you about this is that it's not particularly, y'know, jazzy. I mean, there's some ragtime/New Orleans-style pianos, sure, but it's essentially just a rollicking little tech-houser. Still, this is a dance music reviews blog, not a court of law or the Advertising Standards Agency or anything, so we'll let 'em off.

Remixes of Jazzhead itself come from Jim Rivers and John Dimas & Cosmic Cowboys. The former accentuates the jazzy elements of the original a little with some nice brushed-snare sounds, the latter pair add just the lightest sprinkling of disco dust, but all three mixes will do the do.

And speaking of dust, you also get bonus cut Dust Village, which is a perfectly serviceable little chugger in its own right, with an energetic kinda roll to it, some wonked-out organ-y sounds and just occasionally, a chap saying 'house' so you know what kinda music it is. Which is always helpful.

Out: This week

About: This comes on respected German label Dieb Audio. They're having some website 'issues' right now, apparently, but for now you can find 'em on Facebook, MySpace and Soundcloud.

You could call this techno, or you could call it tech-house… if it's tech-house, then it's about as out-and-out techy a tech-houser as you're likely to read about on this blog. If it's techno, then it's GOOD techno, what can I tell you?

Three tracks that are, variously, crunchy, funky, energetic, bouncy, a little bit rave-y around the edgest, and in the case of Yeah, possibly even a little bit silly, you might argue. But who cares, this rocks. Even if the sleeve IS a bit scary.

Out: This week

About: Don't know much about Eigo but apparently he's been getting much love from Doorly, has been tipped as a rising star by Kiss FM and, on this evidence, knows a thing or two about creating a dancefloor-rockin' tune. Or three. As for the label, this comes from Get Fresh Records, who again I don't know a lot about except that this is only their second release.

Oh look, here you are… they're based in London and here's their Soundcloud and website. Good old Google, eh?

Sunday, 6 March 2011

See, I had a load of stuff flagged up for blogging this week... but when I came to sit down and listen to it all properly, there really wasn't that much to say about any individual record. There is a LOT of tech-house out there at the mo' that's… well, it's good, I like it, but it IS starting to sound a bit same-y, folks...

So what a pleasure it was, then, to chance upon this four-tracker from HoS which I'd nearly overlooked. Cos instead of same-y tech-house, what we have here are four slabs of good old-fashioned deep(ish) house bump. Funked-up, acid-ified medication for your glitched-out soul.

About: Oh yeah, and this is also the debut release on House Of Stank's own brand-new label, Get Up Recordings. Artists with Get Up Recordings already in the pipeline include, we're told, Honey Dijon, Tedd Patterson, David Harness, Jonny Fiasco and Rob Rives, so it should be one to keep an eye on if you still like house music done the good ol' US of A way... they don't seem to have a website yet that I can find but here's House of Stank's own MySpace and Soundcloud page... at time of writing you can HEAR the four tracks on this EP (Guilty Pleasures, Still Waiting and two rubs of Waiting) at the latter

* Just in case, for the youngsters and people from abroad... that's a clever joke, you see.

Saturday, 5 March 2011

The headline for many will be an appearance by Red Rack 'Em AKA Hot Coins, who serves up a slab of slo-mo deep house informed by disco in its use of brass and string sounds called Fellini, but elsewhere you also get rattling tech percussion crossing swords with classic house piano sounds on James Duncan's Feel The Sky, more slo-mo and slightly experimental vibes from Native Sound on Feel The Sky and, the best of the bunch for me, the funky-assed roll of Alex Agore's Pimp Stomp, which is like that bit in a ’70s NY cop film where the detective drives through the city streets late at night contemplating stuff.

All told, this is well worth checking if you like your slightly more leftfield vibes.

Out: This week

About: As stated, this comes on the brand spanking new Cortelyou Rd Recordings. Here's their very own blog, and let's hope there's plenty more to come.

Some very solid deep/tech house from this Liverpudlian twosome here. Remixes come from Simon Mattson, Steve Mastro and Chris Minus, with the latter's Deep Fried Remix the pick of a strong crop, for me.

Not got huge amounts to say about it, but it's good. One for that head-down jackin' zone circa 4am when the tourists have gone home and the dancefloor's properly locked into the groove.

Out: Last week, but I forgot to include it and it was too good to ignore!

About: This comes atcha on Cubism, which is Tony Thomas's label. Their output is quite varied and hence not always for these ears, but when they hit the spot they hit the spot for sure! Visit them online here, whydon'tcha?

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

I am quite possibly the most tired man in the entirety of Christendom tonight, so gonna keep this quite brief. But I will just tell you that if it's the slightly more serious/experimental/minimal end of tech-house you're into (as opposed to the silly bouncy end), then this new compilation from Kindisch should be right up your street.

It's mixed by David Keno, who's had several singles out on the Get Physical offshoot before, and he serves up 13 killer cuts from the likes of DJ T, Larsson, Gavin Herlihy and H.O.S.H, plus a host of lesser-known names. It's good… must admit if pushed I'm more of a silly bouncy kinda guy myself, but this IS still very good!

Out: Now-ish, best I can tell you I'm afraid...

About: As I said, and indeed as you should be aware anyway by now, Kindisch is an offshoot of the mighty Get Physical. Here's their website… and naturally they're on MySpace and Facebook as well.

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

The first V/A release from D’Julz’s Bass Culture imprint, but the 14th release in total… and the 14th absolute corker. How do they do it?

The artists in question are JM Abooga & Danny Fiddo, Fabio Gianelli, Domy and Larsson. In Evil Intentions, Valencians Abooga & Fiddo serve up a slab of deep, organ-driven garage that’ll have the vintage Jersey heads in raptures (well, it’s got this vintage Jersey head in raptures, anyway). Gianelli’s Leitmotiv is a more contemporary-sounding deep houser with treated, not-quite-there stabs of male vocal that for some reason make me think of Timmy Thomas’s Why Can’t We Live Together? Fellow Italian Domy then goes seriously deep and driving on Go On, a track that doesn’t ‘do’ a lot but is nonetheless (or rather, is hence) another treat for the proverbial ‘heads’, before Germany’s Larsson brings the EP to a close with All By Myself, a slightly more drifty, leftfield affair with hand percussion a-gogo and the merest, most snippety of vocal snippets.

So that’s two Spaniards, two Italians and a German, on a French label… that’s how they do it. Deep house pan-Europeanism is clearly the way ahead! And here's the player thingummy, cos you SO need to hear this…

France’s M. Bonelli steps up with a rolling tech-houser here, inflected with a little gypsy-Italo swing. Y’know the wedding scene at the start of The Godfather? Well, imagine they’d held the wedding at Fabric. You get the kind of idea.

Brahms and (Seamless dude) Graham Sahara supply remixes, though to be honest neither of them do huge amounts different from the Original, so I’m actually more intrigued by the title… if A-Level French serves me correctly that’d be something like Smuggler’s Horse? Or is it Smugglers’ Train? Something to do with smuggling and modes of transport, anyway… I’d look it up, but I’m sat on a train right now.*

But yeah, a solid outing that’ll move the floor for sure.

Out: This week

About: This is on Claude Monnet’s Analog Recordings label - they don't seem to have a label website but here’s the Claude Monnet site. It's got a podcast you can sign up to, plus a picture of a robot that I can't identify, but that looks like an early 80s Tomy product to me (for the benefit of any fellow toy robot collectors out there)

*Which IS definitely a train, incidentally. Not a horse.

PS I looked it up later, and it's actually 'way', as in 'road'. So I was sort of half-right, with 'mode of transport'. I find this is often the case. (Ie, I'm often wrong, but find a way of convincing myself that I was half-right...)

PPS I also wasn't looking at the label picture when I wrote that… although if I had been, I'd have probably just have gone down the horse, er, road. Oh god this is confusing. Note to self: try and write a blog about music, not one full of random stream of consciousness drivel.